A lot of so-called “marketing” is really just a combination of ineptitude and guilt. Waxing poetic about your rent being due so Aunt Bertha will fork it over is not “marketing” your book. Indeed, telling all your relatives–directly or passively aggressively–that they “have” to buy your book is also not marketing your book. Any strategy that revolves around people actually knowing you, and caring who you are, is not marketing. A real marketing strategy focuses on a single, fairly straightforward principle: asking yourself, what’s in it for the other guy?

With that in mind, here are some things that many would-be authors do, all of which are a waste of time:

Trying to generate sales from friends (and relatives, and coworkers). This will produce one sure-fire result: awkwardness. And, quite possibly, depending on how ham-handed you are, resentment. Telling people they need to spend money on you is never a…